FRANKFORT, Ky. – As Kentucky's general tax revenues came up $91 million short, Gov. Steve Beshear was able to balance the budget by raiding small state funds that get their money from fees or taxes paid for a particular purpose.

He took license fees paid by nurses, insurance agents, doctors and pharmacists. He took gas tax revenue dedicated to cleaning up leaking underground gas tanks. He took revenue from a surcharge on casualty insurance dedicated to training firefighters.

In budget parlance, these moves are called "fund transfers" — taking from balances within myriad small state accounts to make up for the inability of Kentucky's general taxes to pay for state services and programs.

But it frustrated advocates for some programs who note fund transfers have become a common practice in Kentucky budgeting — and do not necessarily come without pain.

"It has become institutionalized that we divert fees collected to meet a particular need to balance the General Fund. "But in all those cases, the particular needs are still there," said Tom FitzGerald, director of the Kentucky Resources Council, who is upset that about $3 million was transferred from environmental programs.

"In many cases you end up slowing down reaching the goals that dedicated fees were established to achieve," FitzGerald said.

Beshear found his options limited when state tax revenues dropped very late in the 2013-14 fiscal year. At the end of the fiscal year on June 30, General Fund revenues were $91 million short of the $9.5 billion required to balance. But he was able to do so without cutting appropriations within the recently passed 2014-16 state budget.

Beshear essentially snapped up about $20 million in unspent funds from last year's budget, grabbed $21 million from the state's Rainy Day Fund, and got $50 million from fund transfers.

The governor transferred money from 45 different state agencies or funds — some of them obscure. For instance, he used $300,000 from the "Reduced Cigarette Ignition Propensity Fund" — fees paid by cigarette manufacturers for fire safety programs.

"The use of fund transfers is a valuable tool in how we manage and balance the overall budget ... one that keeps us from making deeper cuts to state agencies," Beshear said, noting that the Kentucky Supreme Court recently affirmed the constitutionality of fund transfers.

Legality aside, Julianne Ewen, president of the Kentucky Coalition of Nurse Practitioners, says it's wrong for $1 million to have been transferred from the Board of Nursing, which gets its money from nurses' license and license renewal fees.

"They've taken money before, and in significant amounts," Ewen said. "And speaking just for myself, I pay fees for my licensure and it should be used to maintain the Board of Nursing. ... And I resent the fact that part of it is being taken away."

Chris Crawford, president of the Kentucky Firefighters Association, said firefighters are frustrated that Beshear took $2 million from the Firefighters Foundation Program Fund, which gets money from a surcharge on casualty insurance policies.

The money is used to pay full-time firefighters who undergo annual training $3,100 per year. It also sends $8,250 per year to volunteer fire departments that meet training requirements.

Crawford said those amounts have not been increased in more than 20 years, and his association sought an increase from the recent General Assembly, but was turned down.

"So now when we lose money like this, it's something firefighters don't like. They feel that this money is supposed to be set aside for fire protection, fire suppression purposes," Crawford said.

FitzGerald is concerned that the budget-balancing plan tapped: $2 million from a fund to clean leaky underground petroleum tanks; $1 million from Kentucky Pride Fund that helps pay to cap and properly shut down old landfills; $350,000 from the Waste Management Fund; and $300,000 from a fund used to properly dispose of old tires.

FitzGerald agreed these programs will continue. "But I don't think think you can sweep these monies without having some impact. ... At least you're left with no cushion left for dealing with an emergency."

FitzGerald said he understands the need for some fund transfers during dire budget emergencies at the depth of the national economic recession in 2008. "But as the Supreme Court recently noted, it has become routine for the legislature and governor to do these transfers, yet the tasks for which these funds were created have not been completed."

The two largest transfers, by far, came from within the Cabinet for Health and Family Services. But officials of the cabinet say they are excess funds, and taking them will not result in reducing any services.

The budget took a $15 million, onetime payment the cabinet got this spring in a settlement reconciliation from the federal Medicaid program for three years of Medicaid costs in the residential services program within the Department of Behavioral Health, Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities.

And nearly $8.6 million came from an un-needed balance in Kentucky Access — a health plan for people with high-risk conditions which stopped taking members last December with the creation of Kentucky's new health benefit exchange.

Audrey Tayse Haynes, secretary of the Health and Family Services Cabinet, agreed that if it had not lost the one-time funds the cabinet could have applied them to worthy purposes. "Let me make a list. There are many causes, programs, whatever we could have supported with this money..." Haynes ssaid. "But we were fortunate that none of this money had already been budgeted to be spent on any specific thing."

Top six fund transfers that were part of Beshear's budget balancing order: